


As Best we can

by Falke



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Bondage, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Heterosexual Sex, Interspecies Awkwardness, Interspecies Sex, Nudity, Predator/Prey, Scent Kink, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-06-10 13:42:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6958984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falke/pseuds/Falke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gratuitous WildeHopps smut shorts. Any character development, plot or literary coherency is purely coincidental.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reminders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "But you'll never know what you're missing," she said. It still seemed unfair. "Your brain wants something you don't know you want, too."
> 
> "With that attitude, sure." Nick waved a paw. "Look at it as an excuse to try new things on me."

Food was done for the evening. Work was over for the week. Now they had all night to spend any way they wanted, so naturally Judy was pulling at Nick's utilities before his door had locked shut.

And she could tell he felt it, too. It was a surefire way to make Fridays memorable: hold off from anything together for two days prior, so that when the weekend finally did roll around they had the drive and stamina to go until their ears rang.

Nick was holding her so tight he'd picked her up, growling against her chest as he carried her deeper into his apartment.

"You need anything before we start?" he asked, right in her ear, and chased the question with careful teeth.

"This stuff _gone,_ " she said.

Their belts clattered in a jumble on the bed. She threw his shirt and her suit at the couch. They wouldn't need that either. For times like this, they had _dedicated infrastructure._ Nick had approved of her one-off descriptor so much that it had stuck.

He let her go long enough to pad to his fridge. She ran inventory. Paracord, check. The orange-handled, blunt-tipped dive knife (her idea), check.

Yoga mat, check. It was a new addition. Megafauna-scale, far larger than either of them needed. But it made a good play surface: it was easier on tired paws and knees than the composite floor, and durable, and easily washed.

The only thing missing was Nick's muzzle, and he was carrying that as he came up behind her.

"Drink up," he said, and handed over a fresh bottle of water. He tapped the one he was carrying to hers.

She raced him, to make up for his larger mouth. He still beat her, and made to fasten the ring muzzle around his nose.

"Wait," Judy said. She put her bottle down and caught his paws. It was their little ritual.

Nick always looked funny at her when she did this, because it reminded both of them of why the muzzle was necessary in the first place.

He took it seriously, and every time his eyes and ears tightened at her like this it made her pause, too, to appreciate the risks they took to be together. To look at him one more time while they were still in the clear, to make sure they were both okay with this.

She reached up and pulled him to his knees, pulled the muzzle down out of the way so she could kiss him full-on.

"I love you," he said.

"Pretzels."

Nick lowered his head to let her fasten the buckle behind his ears, and he was smiling at her.

"Pretzels."

\---

Tonight, Nick was all hers.

They traded off, sometimes, but he confessed this sort of thing was really growing on him. _Predator and prey_ was its own dynamic, for its own nights. In the meantime, _Nick not going anywhere_ was getting popular.

Judy checked her handiwork. "You good?"

Nick tested it. From where he was kneeling on the mat, his shoulders came forward and his quads rolled under the russet fur of his legs, but Judy was good at ropework. She'd lashed his wrists to the insides of his ankles. He couldn't stand and, of course, he couldn't cover up.

"Very good."

Judy stood in front of him and looked him up and down, just because she could. Nick had a habit of ducking a bit to get a better eye level when they did this. As she watched his nostrils flared.

She reached careful paws for the thick fur on his chest, and got a rumble of approval. Now he was starting to peek. But she left him alone for the moment. The whole idea behind this was to see how long he could last with her scent and touch working on him before he finally gave in. So instead of reaching down for him, Judy touched herself.

She rested her forehead against Nick's chest so she could watch his progress and slipped a finger between her own legs.

There was something symbiotic about it. He filled out his sheath and started to grow and harden, and as the sight and his scent started to really compete with her own, Judy felt herself edging closer, pushing her fingers deeper.

She would come first. She almost always did. But that was part of the process, too. She could see him twitching with his heartbeat now, and as that first shining droplet started to roll down his length she felt it hit her.

He supported her weight, because she couldn't trust her legs to hold her up right now. His nose dipped alongside her throat and she heard him breathing, just breathing and taking her in and then it happened.

He shifted for the first time against his lashings, pulling his shoulders forward and up. The rumble in his chest edged toward a groan.

Judy panted against him. "Feeling it, are you?"

"Just a bit." His voice was hoarse. "Carrots, you smell-" he had to swallow. "You smell too good."

"Come on, then." Judy held her shining fingers up, and he pointed, focused like a laser, and flinched in surprise as she rubbed them on the top of his snout, right between his nose and the ring of his muzzle.

"Oh. Oh, that's not _fair-_ "

"How badly do you want it?" She asked, and crouched in front of him so he'd see her paw go back between her legs.

He wanted it enough to test his bonds again, with a great twisting of his core. His cock was throbbing now, dripping with his excitement. Judy stared in fascination and willed herself to slow down. If his knot went up now, she might miss his first shot, and she wanted to feel that.

Judy stood over him, right up against his chest, with her legs spread and her nose against his chin as he looked down at her. It was hard, to wait for him to initiate, but he'd run out of discipline fast. The scents always worked harder on him.

And sure enough, inside a minute Nick's hips were rolling. He was fully erect, straining to close the gap. It pulled him tight, showed off his whole length.

"I can't take it," he huffed against her throat. "Please, I'm so close-"

Judy pushed her fingers into herself one more time and gave her paw to him. He fastened on her, as much as he could with the muzzle, licking and sucking and making anxious little fox noises that were going to get Judy off again, all on their own.

And she finally relented and took him in her free paw, lowering her hips and guiding him home. From here he could only get about halfway into her, but that was fine because she wanted to see this as much as she wanted to feel it.

_"Ah-"_

Nick gasped and she shivered and there he was, growing and swelling and then flooding her, so shallow that Judy felt every spurt and lost her own control. Her legs shuddered and she sank further onto him, and it only made him renew his efforts.

She still wished he could knot her safely, came the dim thought as the orgasm took her breath. But physics was one of the very few things they simply couldn't overcome together.

She could give him all she could, as she did now, crossing her ankles above his tail so her entire body weight pressed against the top of his knot, and he still moaned and pushed at her as if it wasn't enough.

"I love you, Nick."

She could see the part of his brain responsible for words restarting behind his eyes.

"Oh, I know, sweetheart."

She hugged him, her head to his chest, and felt him come again.

"I'm sorry."

"Oh. No." He leaned far enough away to see her eyes. "No, no, don't _do_ this to yourself, Carrots. Not now." He squirmed against her. "Get off for a second."

"But I hear you," Judy said. She lifted her hips and felt the heat spilling out of her. "Like it's never enough."

"Don't say that." Nick blew through his nose, trying to clear her scent. "You know it's not about that."

"Nick-"

"Carrots, I promise you I don't-" He looked down at himself. " _Pretzels._ I need my paws back."

Her heart thumped at the safeword, but she did as instructed and reached around him to fumble at the knots that tied him down.

"I love you," he murmured in her ear as she worked, and pressed an insistent muzzle against her. "I love you. _You._ Not what you are. _Who_ you are. Don't ever forget that."

She got one but the other clove hitch was rolled over thanks to Nick's motions and she couldn't get her fingers under the cord. She groped for the knife at the edge of the mat and cut his wrist free with infinite care.

Then he pulled his arms around and smothered her in a hug right there, right in their own puddle.

"It's okay, Carrots. Just breathe."

"I did it again."

"It's okay," he repeated, and tightened his grip. "We know this is going to happen sometimes."

"I can't help the doubt," Judy said. It felt wrong to relish his claws against her fur now. "It won't leave me alone, even when we're together like this. Especially when we're together."

"It's not conscious," Nick said. "You're right, you can't help it. I can't help it. We're wired to want things." He prodded her with his nose. "You love me, right?"

"More than I should."

"Exactly. Now guess how much more I love you."

"You can't. You'd explode."

Nick frowned. "Okay, fair. Point is, that's what's most important."

He gave her everything she could ever want. A friend and confidant and protector and voice of reason. And, yes, the sex was so good it left her cross-eyed.

And if she got all that from Nick, he by his own admission got the same from her.

"But you'll never know what you're missing," she said. It still seemed unfair. "Your brain wants something you don't know you want, too."

"With that attitude, sure." Nick waved a paw. "Look at it as an excuse to try new things on me."

"On you."

"You make me come," Nick said, as if that simple fact invalidated the whole objection. And it kind of did. "Carrots, I _drown_ in you, you know that. Like I'm going to say no if you find some way to make that even better."

Judy sniffed.

"Okay," she said eventually. "But I ruined the moment. Again."

"You and I are both expert moment saboteurs," Nick agreed. He kissed the top of her nose. "It's okay, love. We can still have some fun while we get cleaned up."

\---

They sat on the tile floor of the shower, far longer than they needed to, because Nick was right: it was a good excuse.

His knot was still full, and she kept him in that state as long as she could, exploring its intimidating, physically impossible contours while she had this angle on it.

Nick, true to his word, wasn't going to complain. He would stop his own gentle snuggling every once in a while when his breath came shorter, to nuzzle her ears and throb in her careful paws, into the water circling the drain, and then he would repay the favor, with insistent fingers and tongue between her own legs until her whole body shook.

"I'm supposed to be helping you," she panted, umpteen times later as he smiled up at her and tried to lick his chops around the muzzle that still held his teeth safely closed. "You were the one tied up."

"My shoulders are a bit sore, but that's my fault." Nick crawled higher so they were nose to nose. "Believe me, I'm fine." He kissed her. "Thank you, though."

She looked down his front, disappointed. "Are you done?"

He gave another wry smile. "I think stamina is one of the few edges you have on me."

"Thanks, I think."

They shut off the water and shared an enormous fluffy towel. Nick took special care to dry and stow his muzzle and cranked off a series of jaw-cracking yawns, and they crawled into bed, to sleep as they always did.

Judy found herself happy in her fox's arms - and legs, and tail, and natural muzzle.

No, they weren't perfect. Frankly, there were one big walking experiment. But that was part of what had brought them together in the first place. There was a lot to learn, and a lot to remember. Keeping track of all of it was as much a commitment as any of the rest of their relationship.

Sometimes they had to help each other along, forgive each other mistakes and lapses. But they were good at that. They knew the score. They never judged.

And no one else was ever going to make her feel this warm and safe and _loved._ That was worth it, all on its own.


	2. Nemesis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick turned her on. Well, no, that was obvious. The specific bits of ancestral unease he triggered turned her on. Judy wasn't sure if that was normal; knew it wasn't socially acceptable; but when it happened she typically wasn't in a position to complain.

Judy Hopps would be first to admit her romantic relationship was unorthodox. It was dangerous and maybe even unprecedented, not least because she was prey and her boyfriend was a predator.

Not just any predator, either - Nick Wilde was a Red Fox, as close to a traditional nemesis as Judy could have.

If those things mattered anymore.

Mammals had left such distinctions behind thousands of years ago. She knew a thing or two about that. Sure, real life was indeed messier, and to this day, despite her best efforts, there was an undercurrent of divide in Zootopia between predator and prey, that probably wouldn't go away no matter how many times she saved the city's collective tails from anarchy.

On a smaller scale, though, where Nick had taught her it mattered most? She'd worked that out. They'd worked that out.

Nick Wilde was a Red Fox, as close to a traditional nemesis as Judy could have - and she loved him anyway.

\---

Their evenings together often went this way, after they finished their work and before they get up to the cardio. Tonight, Nick was waiting for her to call the shots. He had himself wrapped around her on his bed, his knees supporting her feet and his tail between their legs. His paws were... traveling, sometimes chaste and sometimes not, and his long nose was running up and down her ears the way it always did. She could feel his even breathing.

So many months together now, and it never got old. Nick covered her up so completely, so much more thoroughly than any blanket. His heartbeat was slow and different; his scent sharp and unique.

She noticed that especially. Scents were a bigger deal for him, but the old parts of her brain, the parts civilized mammals had learned to control, still reacted as strongly as ever to certain stimuli. It couldn't be trained away, not even with this kind of constant, intimate exposure.

Judy was more than willing to put up with that. The reaction might still be there, but Judy knew, as surely as the sun rose in the mornings, that Nick would never hurt her of his own will. He suppressed the same reflexes she did, just in reverse. It was something they acknowledged and shared.

Judy had nothing to fear.

Her problem was now that she knew she had nothing to fear, sometimes she wanted something to fear. There was attraction in surrender to base instinct. Sometimes, when she didn't think too hard about it, the cold spikes of reflex Nick sent down her back would make her catch her breath for entirely different reasons.

Nick turned her on. Well, no, that was obvious. The specific bits of ancestral unease he triggered turned her on. Judy wasn't sure if that was normal; knew it wasn't socially acceptable; but when it happened she typically wasn't in a position to complain.

Like now. Nick's claws pricked and she squirmed in his arms, enough to get him to react.

"You okay?"

"More than okay." Judy tilted her head to look up at him. Did he know? He had to have guessed by now, the way he changed his motions and behaviors as they progressed like this.

His snout traced little kisses down one of her ears. "Good."

He'd give her this, she decided. They had a history of trying new things.

"I have an idea."

"I like your ideas."

She nudged him. "You're a predator."

Nick stopped, and adopted an expression of shock. "That explains a great many things."

Judy dug her fingers into the fur of his chest to shut him up. "And I'm prey."

"Tasty, tasty prey," he agreed, and suited actions to words with a set of teeth ever so carefully nibbling at her left ear. Judy shivered.

"So- what if we just kept going like this?"

Nick's ears rotated forward and he looked down at her. "Roleplay."

"They're not roles," Judy said. "They're what we are, and that's okay."

"That is okay," he said. "But the last time we tried something like that..." His ears flattened. "Well, you remember."

"I trust you to know the difference between something you choose to do and something you can't help." Judy buried her nose against his neck. "We've done this already."

"We found a limit already," he corrected her.

"You know what I mean," she said.

"It's such a risk," he said, and squeezed her in his paws, his massive paws. They were so much larger than hers, so much larger than almost any part of her. She was already starting to notice. "I'm not used to it. Even with all that's happened, the world doesn't like us preds reminding it we have pointy bits."

"The world is a bit different in here," Judy said. "Not a place for judgement."

"I know that," Nick said. He'd gotten a bit of distance. She followed and climbed back on top of him, leaning close. She wanted him to understand this.

"You know what you do to me," she told him. "You wouldn't bite my ears like that, or squeeze me, or growl otherwise." She tapped her chin against the top of his nose to drive her point home and he huffed in surprise. His pupils ticked wider. "See?"

"I can't hurt you." He shook his head.

"Exactly."

"No, I mean I can't take that risk, Carrots."

She chinned him again. "I trust you."

"Stop it." Nick's voice was small, but his paws were still powerful enough to lift her away from him. "This is hard enough without you marking me like that. I have to think this through."

Judy cooled. He was right, of course. This was exactly the sort of decision they had to agree to together, exactly the change they had to both commit to. She trusted him with her life, and Nick trusted her with his, but acting on that was harder for him. He was less reckless, maybe; more aware of what he had to lose now that he'd gained someone to love so completely. Judy owed it to him to let him make up his own half of their mind on this one.

So she waited, and watched, and tried not to let it show how much he was already getting to her. Talk of predators had her mind singing already, looking for threats that didn't exist here but were attached to him anyway: razor claws, superior night vision, those _teeth._ Nick was fit and trim, more than capable of overpowering her should he choose to; stronger and heavier; faster on the straight line over longer distances. Evolved to hunt her down.

She wanted him to stalk her. To use his claws and teeth, to corral her with the weight and potential of those paws. He never would hurt her, but her brain wouldn't know that. It would fire off adrenaline and hormones anyway. A safe rush. He would sense it, too.

Even now, as Nick inspected his claws, Judy felt herself tensing, watching their motions as he curled his fingers.

"I listen," he said. "Even when you have me all the way under, I listen. I don't know if it's enough. Last time it almost wasn't." He looked from his claws to her, and his eyes fell on her throat. "But you do think straight enough for the both of us. If we do this, you have to promise me you'll do what you have to to stay safe."

The thought of hurting him, even with her life at risk, was still enough to turn her stomach. But that reminder always came in at some point; always made her stop and recall what was going through his head the whole time they pushed their relationship like this. Just as it was his responsibility to stop if they had to, it was hers to recognize and remember when that moment came.

She was ready for that, and he was ready to follow her lead. She knew him well enough to see that now. He was coiled, too, with anticipation and desire that had loaded his frame with tension. His tail was more active than usual; his paws more twitchy. Nick jumped and squeezed his eyes shut when she moved close again and took his cheeks in her paws.

"I promise." She kissed his forehead. "Pretzels."

"Pretzels."

When Nick opened his eyes, something had changed.

\---

They started relatively slow; even kept their underwear on. Nick sat behind her on his bed, running his paws over her shoulders, his muzzle held close alongside her head.

But his claws were digging deeper into her fur than Judy had ever felt; deep enough that if she didn't have that coverage she would have seen little welts. His breathing was steady, but it was starting to rattle around the edges.

He moved his paws all over her, stroking and squeezing and pulling gently on her ears, and every so often he would stop to use those claws again, right up the the point of pain, until her breathing changed and he could hear the effect he was having.

"You know I love you," he said. "But this feels strange." His snout tapped the side of her neck. "One-sided."

He was holding her like she might bolt. Judy's ears had gone limp with the sensation. Her heart was starting to hammer. "But not enough to stop. Don't you dare stop."

Nick huffed a couple of times and shifted against her again, setting and resetting his claws against her bare stomach.

His teeth met her ear again, this time more adventurous, with some force behind them. Judy's little groan turned harsh. Her ears were sensitive, like most rabbits, but this was an entirely new level. Nick was taking the plane of her ear between his jaws now, not just nibbling but biting and pulling - carefully enough to ensure it wasn't painful but definitely hard enough to get her to notice and twitch and gasp. And he was growling while he did it, a deep rumble that rolled through her head thanks to his proximity.

She swore she could count his sharp points through that contact alone. She was scared to move, in case it pulled on her wrong, and she wouldn't be able to anyway: Nick's paws were around her torso, holding her so tight. The heat started to crawl through her belly. Not long now.

"Squirmy little bunny," Nick murmured.

Judy wasn't going to apologize for that, because she knew the motion was working on him the same way his teeth were working on her. Instead, she wriggled further back against him, trying to get enough contact to see if he was really feeling it yet.

But his paws held her fast again. His teeth vanished and he pulled her own arms around behind her back. She heard something hiss and click against the nylon of his service belt, hanging off the headboard, and then there was cool plastic wrapping her wrists. She froze.

Nick leaned forward far enough to make eye contact. His own expression was alert and careful, ears forward, teeth hidden. He gave her a three-count like that, a chance to call him off before they committed.

But she held her tongue, so he pulled the zip-tie tight and left her paws bound behind her waist. Her eyes and ears and nose tracked him as he climbed off the bed and stood in front of her, his moment of caution already fading back under the new, very feral layer of awareness he was finally showing for her.

He placed a paw on her bare chest and pushed, slowly, until she started to overbalance and fell on to her back. Nick leaned into the contact, spreading his paw wide enough to cover her entire chest, and held her there. His appraisal was blatant, enough to make her blush even though she knew it was coming.

Her hips were already up; there was nothing to stop Nick from tugging her shorts over them and down her legs. Judy watched his nostrils flare as her scent hit him all over again. Normally he would temper that reaction at least a little bit; tonight he pointed his muzzle straight at her. She could see all of his teeth.

Nick leaned in, still holding her down, close enough she felt his breath twitching over her cheeks and neck. "You're not afraid of me."

She watched his ears rotate to take in her speedy breathing. "I'm not. My brain might be."

"Your brain's pretty smart." Nick pressed the top of his nose against her neck and held it there. The growl was coming back.

Judy raised her chin for him, giving him her vulnerable neck, and relished her heartbeat. There was a fox on top of her, _her_ fox, immobilizing her, drinking her in. His tongue dragged across her collarbone and her midbrain finally lost it and sent a bolt of chilly warning down her spine. She could smell his own desire now. Her legs tensed; he ran a lone pad down her stomach.

And then there were careful teeth sliding across her throat and a finger brushing between her legs and the feeling in her stomach sharpened and focused and she was right on the edge.

_Fox,_ her brain said.

_Run._

"Nick-"

He huffed against her throat again and ticked his jaw tighter and she came.

It was shameless. her arms were trapped behind her and she'd pulled her taut legs as wide as she could, inviting him closer, and now there was nothing to do but shudder under his paws as he slipped his finger deeper into her.

Nick's limbs stiffened against her. It was fast. The shock of her first climax was already starting to taper back down under her heartbeat, but it was only working on him harder. He left off her throat and traded the paws pinning her to the bed to cradle her head close against his. They were eye to eye. She felt his claws brushing against the base of her ear, could smell herself on his fingers.

"Do you trust me?" he panted.

"You know I do," she said.

He pressed his forehead to hers. "Then don't move."

Nick let her go, dropped to his knees at the edge of the bed and - for the first time Judy could ever remember - lowered his snout and went to work on her without the safeguard of his muzzle.

Oh, it was good. Nick's tongue was broad and flat, and she could feel his sharp canines flicking over her stomach. She clenched around him, involuntarily. The voice in her brain was back. _Get away, he's too close-_ and her own mind, the one that belonged to her, fought with it.

_More._

Nick groaned and grabbed her hips with both paws, holding her to him, working her as fast as he could, so fast she felt it sneaking up on her again. Her legs shook and Nick lapped her up.

She would have come again, had Nick not stopped. He got to unsteady feet, breathing heavily, and turned to the low dresser by his bed.

"Sorry, Carrots." His tail was moving fast - Judy could see the muscles in his back really pulling it around - and there was already an eye-catching bulge in his shorts. He had his ring muzzle in his paws, and he ducked his head so he wouldn't have to look her in the eye as he fastened it around his jaws. "One day soon."

"I love you," Judy told him.

"I know, sweetheart." He gave her a quick grin and then she watched him push his guards down again, to succumb to the desire and eagerness she knew he was feeling. His shorts vanished.

This, too, was uniquely fox, uniquely predatory. Judy took him in - how he tapered to a canine point, how he was getting as wet as she was in anticipation. No knot yet; he wasn't that close. She hoped he wouldn't worry about it tonight. Hoped she wouldn't have to intervene, for his sake.

Nick didn't seem bothered by eventualities, though. He crawled back onto the bed and held himself over her, keeping his weight from her for now, and buried his nose against her throat.

She squirmed against him as he slipped into her, and then had to gasp for breath because he was as good as his word. Nick was fast. Trading subtlety for raw energy. It was... _primal._

In no time at all he'd brought her right to the edge again, and he definitely felt that, too. He moaned as she pushed herself against him, held her close with his own paws tight enough that his claws stung.

And then she could feel it coming, felt his knot growing and slipping in and out of her, with more resistance each time. Nick growled again, and this time she thought she could hear the frustration in it, the disappointment that he could never make that final commitment with her.

He buried himself in her, one last time, and now he was so full it hurt and Judy felt a moment of genuine, ancient fear-

And on that thought, because it was now so linked to what she loved and what she dared to surrender to with him, the orgasm roared through her mind and body, as hard as she could ever remember.

And Nick tugged free with a burst of sensation that only heightened it, and reached down for himself, circling a finger and thumb under his knot and pulling, pulling and straining and pressing their bodies close until Judy heard his breath rush out too and felt him squirting between them, spilling onto her chest and stomach, hot and musky and oh so conspicuous.

_Mine,_ it said to her primitive brain, and she shivered in exhausted pleasure. _You're all mine._

It was far from a traditional stalk. But as Judy watched Nick twitch and breathe and come down, she couldn't help the satisfaction. The way he caught her eye and gave an embarrassed grin past his muzzle at what he'd done made her warm. He'd marked her back.

He propped himself up on his elbows above her and nuzzled against her neck.

"Love you," he said into the sheets beside her.

Judy twisted her own cheek against his. "You, too."

He looked at her, and frowned. "I got a bit carried away."

"No," she said. "Not at all."

"You're a mess."

"Right now I like being your mess." She squirmed against him. "Can you cut me loose?"

Zipties. Nick got up and turned to the dresser for their escape knife. Judy watched his cock bounce. He was still full.

He drew the little knife where she could see and rolled her partway over to cut her bonds. As soon as she was free and Nick had clicked the tool back into its sheath, Judy grabbed him and pulled him down on top of her.

"Whoa, Carrots-"

"I love you," she said in his ear. "Again. Quick, before you go down."

Nick didn't take that much convincing. Her urgent chin made him snort and tense again, and at her bidding he rolled her over so her back slotted against his broad chest. She reached down to guide him in, and felt him rumble in pleasure.

Nick's long nose went right between her ears, and she tilted her head back to push against him as he started to move.

"Come on, fox," she said. "Take your prey."

Nick stiffened and grabbed her so hard she almost left the bed. His enormous paws covered her messy front, keeping her safe and close.

_Fox,_ the warning came. _Fox fox fox._

"Okay," he breathed. "Hold tight, little bunny."

\---

She was - well, not a wreck, exactly, so much as she was totally depleted. Judy was used to a sky-high libido, but libido plus adrenaline was a powerful and unfamiliar combination that left her leaning against the shower wall on shaky legs. Nick crouched in front of her, with her forearms in his paws, and brushed carefully at the fur of her wrists.

"Are you feeling all right?"

"Just exhausted," Judy said. "Thanks to you."

"You're not sore?"

"A little. Nothing I wasn't expecting."

Nick kept checking her over anyway, on her wrists and arms and ears and throat, and finally gathered her close. She gave him her weight.

"I love you," he said. "Are you sure you liked it?"

"I came so hard my vision tunneled," Judy said, and shook her head at his expression. "And that's a good thing. Maybe not for every night, but yes. You can relax. I loved this, full stop."

"That's two of us, then." Nick shut off the water and gave her a towel. "I'm sorry I hang up on it sometimes. I hid the pred stuff for so long it's hard to bring it out on cue."

"You can practice on me whenever you want," Judy said. "I'm the last person to judge you for being who you are."

It was a little twist to his own words. Nick smiled down at her and picked her towel-wrapped body up, carefully this time, without claws, to take her into the main room. "Mild-mannered cop on the streets, savage in-"

"Don't." She mock-glared. "No overdone jokes. That's a rule somewhere, I think."

"Okay, all right." Nick laid her on the couch and helped her remove her towel, then slipped onto the cushions beside her and curled them up. Judy settled into the hollow of his body and all was right with the world.

She could still smell him, now that they were through the water and back in close proximity. She could still feel the line of his long, powerful jaw pressed against the top of her head. And it still set her heart just a little bit faster. There was no escaping it, even while they were exhausted and spent.

Judy didn't know if he sensed it, or if it was just timing. But her fox pulled her just a little bit tighter and she felt him sigh against her.

Thank you for doing what I couldn't," he said. "For trusting me enough to try this."

"I always did," she murmured.

He was quiet for a moment. "I think you had to start it. You know what I don't."

In answer, she pressed his paws tight against her.

_All mine,_ his scent had told her tonight.

_All mine, so nothing can ever hurt you._


	3. Dress Blues

They lasted through the opening ceremonies, and most of the speeches, and even dinner itself. But Bogo was taking forever up there, and nobody was paying attention to any of the other precinct staff, and their dress uniforms were pressed and starched and uncomfortable after a long evening of sitting in them.

Most of all, though, Judy hadn't seen Nick outside of a professional capacity for four days. They'd been so busy.

It was ferociously distracting. All through setup and rehearsal they'd been just close enough for eye contact and nothing else.

So she watched his own boredom across the table and waited for him to look over at her again.

He smiled at her expression at first, until he realized she was maybe more serious about it than was proper for a formal, professional engagement. It became a contest of wills - one Judy was fairly certain she could win, even with the spectators at their table, because she knew he was feeling it as sorely as she did.

Nick's ears twitched back, and he shook his snout minutely from side to side. But when Judy excused herself and escaped into the slightly cooler air of the conference foyer, Nick wasn't far behind her.

"Bad idea, Carrots."

"Says you." He was really distinguished with those cords on his shoulder. Handsome.

"I'm looking out for you. We just stopped doing things we might get fired for."

"Like anyone would say anything."

"They'd know." Nick put his paw down, literally stomped on the floor. "Nuh-uh. You can't make me."

Judy watched him, and debated reaching for his paws. There was the easy way to get his attention, the way he really wouldn't be able to resist, but he was right about that. They weren't exactly subtle once they'd spent a few days apart. She had to keep some of her self-control.

"Fine," she said, and angled for the hallway, going on the mental map she'd built of the civic center the last time she'd sat through a long speech here. "I'm going for some fresh air, then."

"Right," Nick said. "Backstage."

"You don't have to follow."

He caught the door behind her. "No, I don't."

He left it there as they snuck down the stage access and picked their way through the wings, where it got dark and cool and close with the rigging and the stacks of props taller than she was. Judy could barely see her feet, in the sliver of light that leaked under the main curtain from the bright spots on stage. It was intimate. Conspiratorial. She was close enough to hear Bogo droning on about the department's banner year against drug crime, even without the amplification of the PA. They'd be left alone here. Probably.

"This is your fault," Nick growled, right in her ear, and he caught her up in his arms, pulling her back against him. "I am in full dress uniform. I'm supposed to be thinking dress uniform thoughts and instead I couldn't stop looking at your butt while we were up on stage."

Judy squirmed. "How is that my fault?"

Nick busied himself pushing at her ears with his nose, right up against their bases. She felt his shaky breath go out.

"I missed you," he said.

They had to keep it quiet. Judy twisted around and nearly jumped up in his arms in her haste to kiss him properly, and just like that whatever resistance he had to this idea was gone and he was pulling her even closer.

Still, he held her carefully. He wasn't about to do what she knew he could in these cases; what she guessed he really wanted to. They were going back out there at some point tonight, so they had to keep a lid on it.

Or as much a lid on it as one could, she thought as she dropped to one knee and pulled at his uniform. Dress buttons were in the wrong place.

"What does the diagonal belt even _do?"_ Nick muttered.

"Just hold it. Or lose it or something." Judy had to admit that was part of the appeal, him being all dressed up with gleaming silver accents and a couple of actual medals on the immaculate coat and that flash of creamy fur at his waist at the same time, where she was busy opening his pants and pulling his shorts out of the way.

That was what she really wanted. Nick was already showing above the soft fur of his sheath, and he twitched as she took his cock in careful paws to help him along. She could almost feel the groan in his chest as he started to grow in earnest, in time with his heartbeat.

It would be fast. Part by necessity, and part because anything more than three days apart put them both on something of a hair trigger. It didn't happen often.

She pulled his sheath down and slipped her thumb over his sensitive tip and - when he inevitably started to leak, drop by drop - she bent her head to carefully lap him up.

Nick's hips jumped at the contact and she heard his claws scratch on the fall pads she'd backed him up against. She considered using more of her mouth, taking him completely, but she'd never done that before and the frantic backstage pawjob didn't seem the time or place to try something so new and sensitive.

"Carrots." His claws scritched behind one of her ears and he was looking down at her with huge, night-adjusted eyes, careful and alert for her reactions. "Close. You're too good at this-"

He trailed off into a rumbling growl and his hips picked up, just slightly. Judy dug in her pocket for the table napkin she'd brought with her. It wasn't ideal, but there was no way she was going to risk making a mess of her uniform tonight.

And she didn't exactly need the warning. She was too good at reading him now, too attuned to his motions and the way his knot slipped free of his sheath and swelled in her paws.

That meant he really was right on the edge. So Judy stopped right there, and smiled at the frustrated groan he had to choke back.

One paw held the napkin, and with her other one she grabbed the base of his knot and squeezed, so he would swell that last little way.

His breath hissed. _"Judy-"_

He almost overshot anyway. She had to adjust to catch him, pressed a thumb over the napkin and onto his tip, running little circles even as she felt the heat spreading through the material. She could smell him - _really_ smell him - for the first time in days, and it kicked off the warmth in her belly in earnest.

It was neat and relatively clean and over far sooner than she wanted. She could keep him going, but they almost certainly didn't have the time. Someone was bound to wonder where they were eventually.

So she gave Nick one last tug, so he would shiver and his claws would squeeze against the base of her ears just a little tighter, and let him go.

"We are going to traumatize some hapless wait staff," Nick whispered.

"You love it."

Bogo was talking about the force's unparalleled professional decorum, and all Judy wanted to do was get out of this stuffy uniform and sink onto him, feel him _lose it_ like that-

Instead, she had to wait and watch as Nick cooled down. He took himself in his own paws, with a surety and intimacy that made Judy a bit jealous - and did something painful-looking with the waistband of his shorts.

"Really?"

"Not ideal," he allowed. "I feel like a horny teenager again."

And then he grabbed her.

_Horny,_ at least, was accurate. Nick slipped one paw around her waist, taking her weight, and sent the other up her body, against her throat, pushing her chin up so he could get his own nose beneath her cheek. His breath was hot.

Judy had to let him call the shots. She couldn't reciprocate as much as she wanted - not without leaving even more traces some of the sensitive noses out there were likely to pick up. Instead, she pressed her hips back against him, to savor the brief pressure alongside her tail while it lasted.

And Nick was working, too. He slipped the belt at her waist and she wriggled around enough to get the zipper open and down and then he was pushing his paw into her shorts, spreading her with a single careful claw.

She caught her breath at his insistent pressure, and he matched her with a happy little rumble as he realized just how ready she was.

For Judy, four days was forever, and the speed of it still surprised her. Not ten seconds of Nick's careful attentions and her legs were shaking. Her claws ticked against the floorboards. Nick looked down.

"If Bogo hears us we are both _done,"_ he murmured. But he tightened his grip, across her front and lower, where Judy could feel herself coiling like a spring. He did something else and she had to bite the gasp down into a whimper. She tossed her head against his soft neck where the uniform didn't cover.

And Nick just drove her to further squirming. He had to know now, too, because he loved her little tells. And sure enough his arms tightened again, digging the medals into her chest, and he lifted her all the way off the ground so her footpaws came free. She was helping him along; the tension in her core drew her hips and paws up and still her first little buck took them both by surprise. Her feet moved so swiftly she could hear the air hissing over the whisper of strained uniform fabric.

_"Oh-"_

_"Ssshh."_ Nick was nibbling on her ear. "Come on, sweetheart-"

There was another. And another. And Bogo was droning on about community service and soup kitchens and Judy kicked and twisted and came in the arms of her fox, mouth wide open so no one would hear her gasping.

Nick held her up as she came down, his muzzle tucked alongside her chin, as obviously satisfied as she was with her performance. He withdrew his fingers, triggering the same disappointment in Judy it always did, and made a show of licking them totally clean.

"I told you that would be worth it," she panted.

"You never said anything about that," he whispered back.

"Well, it was."

"Fine." Nick pulled her around and helped her suit back up, with a trailing paw over her crotch that made her catch her breath again. "But you-"

"And now," Bogo called with some renewed enthusiasm that carried all the way back to them, "The reason you're all here: the winner of this year's Tradford Award for distinguished service and professionalism is - to nobody's real surprise - Officer Judy Hopps."

Judy stared at Nick's own horrified face. "Oh, no."

_"I told you,"_ he hissed.

_"Did not."_ It was strange how utter panic and the urge to laugh could both be so strong at the same time. She twisted away from him to tug her uniform straight again and make sure all the decorations were in place. "Nick-"

_"Later._ I'll stall for you." He cast around on the floor and came up with the napkin she'd used earlier. "If you take care of this. It can't exactly go in my pocket."

"Deal."

"Great," Nick muttered, half to himself. "Now we've stolen a napkin, too."

"We'll burn it or something."

It almost made him laugh. Judy could see it in his ears. He caught her paw as she turned to go.

"Let's not risk this again."

Judy ducked close enough to plant a kiss on his waiting muzzle. "Fine. Bucket list checked."

"Oh, great." But Nick's fingers held her chin close, for just a split second longer, and he stole another kiss.

"Tonight," she promised his little hint of amorousness as she pulled away. "Save it for tonight. Assuming we're not about to get fired again."


	4. Recovery

"I won."

"Sure."

"I crushed you. It wasn't even close."

"Sure, sweetheart."

That was how it always went. Nick wasn't sure himself whether he was just letting her win, or if she was just that fast, but every time they did this she was the first one hot and panting.

The lobby of her apartment was gloriously air-conditioned. Nick followed Judy across the room, returned Mrs. Reagan's little wave, and climbed all three flights of stairs on shaky legs. She took this as a challenge, too, and so he had to follow suit. Their last little effort at the end of the Friday 10K. Nick was ready to collapse.

And collapse he did, right on the battered rug on her apartment floor, as soon as she got the door secured behind them and he could fling his shirt at his big green couch off to one side. Their breathing bounced off the walls. The ceiling was dim with sunset. Nick was starving.

Judy kept her feet long enough to poke around in the freezer, then joined him hard enough to force the air out of his lungs. Nick protested.

"Here," she said, and pressed the icepack against his forehead.

These were her idea, and Nick was repeatedly glad he was in love with such a resourceful little bunny. Their long runs - especially the summer ones, or the ones that swung through sahara square - took a lot out of him. This was the best way to not feel like he was about to combust.

From here, where Judy was straddling his stomach, Nick could feel the heat rolling off of her. He took the pack and held it to her throat. She closed her eyes.

"You good?"

"I won." Judy eased forward so her chin rested against his chest. From where Nick was looking down his front at her, cradling her head in his paws, he barely had to move his muzzle to steal a little kiss.

"You won."

She stole another, and another, this one with some force and purpose behind it.

This was the other reason for their runs. Not the excellent exercise, not the chance to banter and see the city, but because at the end of them they were both so beat they could barely move. It was an excuse to lie there and be exhausted together.

Or mostly exhausted. Judy had pushed up a bit on top of him, edging her chin over his collarbone. Nick surrendered the icepack and let his paws slide, from her shoulders down to her hips.

"Did you drink?"

"Close enough," Judy murmured. "I drained my bottle on the last half mile. You?"

"Sooner, I think. I'm just really hungry."

"After we get cleaned up, we'll go find something. Or there's peas in the freezer."

"Just peas?" Nick kissed her again, and then she stuck her muzzle in the hollow of his throat. "Not our peas?"

"We're out of our peas. We'll have to make do with storebought, like a couple of heathens." She wriggled her nose. "You smell good."

"Like exhausted fox."

"Yeah, good." Her voice was muffled.

His claws were prickling. They both noticed. The material of Judy's run shorts was much like that of her service uniform - mostly stretchy neoprene and alluringly tight. She rocked her hips.

"Race you."

"Like I'm in any position to move," Nick said. "Why is everything a race?"

"You've always liked finishing this one," she said, and got up.

Her shorts were one piece - and there was nothing else. Nick's eyes widened as she stepped out of them. _Naughty_ bunny.

He was tired and strung out from the long run and her scent still hit him like a freight train. He clicked his jaw closed.

"You miss laundry day or something?"

"It's more that I like watching your face do that," Judy said. She traced the line of the floorboards with a claw. The move rotated her hips, as if she were daring him to look.

Nick took the dare.

"Isn't running commando distracting?"

"It's intense." She sank back onto his front, so her ears drooped down over his muzzle. "I guess you would have it a bit harder, though."

Nick would have to work twice as hard to get out of his remaining clothes, it was true. Not that he was in any rush just now. He was content to let Judy make herself comfortable again, and help her along with paws back on her hips. Her cottony tail twitched under his fingers, and her breathing started to change - away from the steady cadence of recovery to something deeper and more reactionary.

Nick kissed her ears, and the top of her head, and her nose - everywhere he could reach. Sometimes Judy returned them, sometimes she spent the time with her nose buried against his chest, and sometimes, as his paws got firmer, her hips would rock against him.

"Turn around."

"Right here?"

Nick hummed against her ear. "Right here. I don't have the energy to move all the way to the couch."

She rolled, careful not to sink a knee into his stomach. Then one of his paws held her chin up, so he could get his nose right up against her throat, and the other he skated down between her legs. Judy twitched.

"I'll make a mess."

"Not as bad as me," Nick said. "And we're showering anyway."

And then he slipped his finger into her. She writhed on top of him.

It was a special kind of lovemaking, that needed so little energy. It was as much mental as physical - and that was one of the reasons Nick had grown so fond of it. The actions were almost always secondary to the act for them anyway. Nick loved the simple happiness of being close to Judy and knowing what made her tick, well enough that just a touch here or there could set her off.

She shivered and moaned under his careful, measured attention, but he wasn't going to change his pace. He just kept rubbing, and tightened his other paw against her and drank her in. This was going to give him a head start.

He was okay with that. He was tired enough, he judged, to stay where he was and let her work her magic on him when it came his turn. His muzzle was on top of his change of clothes on the couch, where he'd brought it with him and left it before they'd gone out to run. It was just within reach. But Nick wasn't sure if he'd even need the precaution this time. This was one of the proven benefits to taking things so slow, to being so wrung out they barely wanted to move.

When he stopped, just long enough to gather her closer, she made a noise of such arousal and disappointment he almost responded in kind.

"Sorry, sweetheart."

"No, it's okay." Judy spread her legs wider and pushed back against him. "I'm just so close-"

Was she, now. Nick slipped his other paw under the silky fabric of her running shirt, claws against her soft chest so his knuckles stood out under the material-

-and kept the same exact pace. Judy was panting.

"Don't hold back, love. I've got you."

Judy nodded against him, and tucked her muzzle under his. Her eyes closed.

Nick kept working her, and she frowned in mild concentration, and abruptly clutched at his fur.

_"Oh-"_

He smiled. He could feel it too, in her taut stomach, and then with one last touch she was rolling over the edge. He held her until she stopped squeezing him back. She'd soaked his fingers.

When she opened her eyes they were still slightly crossed.

"I love seeing that."

"Don't let me fall asleep." It was a compliment, one she backed up with a contortion over backwards so she could kiss him. "I owe you. Big."

Nick licked his paw. Oh, she tasted good. "Big."

"And slow."

The anticipation started to spool in Nick's belly. Judy sat up and set upon his shorts. He watched her tail wiggle and reached up for the restraint on the couch. _Just in case._

It was an effort to raise his hips long enough to help her push his own clothes off. She'd made to remove everything at once, too, so the cool air rushed in. Judy looked on with wide eyes.

He was peeking already, and starting to drip to boot. He jumped as Judy's warm paws slipped down to cradle him. She turned to look at him out of the corner of her eye.

"And I haven't even started yet."

That was just testament to how very _on_ she could turn him, Nick thought. She pulled down against his sheath and he felt his heart rate tick back up again. He played with her tail and reached around her front with his other paw, to tease her as she worked. If he distracted her properly she'd get another couple free ones before he came.

But Judy was as skilled as he was, working him fuller in no time at all. Nick slid a finger back between her legs to try to slow her down a bit and all it did was backfire. Judy gave him more of her weight and rocked her hips up to meet him, and he felt himself twitch. Warmth pattered on his stomach.

_"Oh."_

"What?"

"Excited, are you?" She laced her fingers around the base of his cock. " _Messy_ fox. Do that again."

"It's not voluntary," Nick managed. "You'll have to experiment."

And that was something she was all too willing to do. Being too tired to so much as move his hips just amped it up. Judy slowly built the pressure, and Nick had to lie there and take it. He couldn't even focus on working her over anymore, not the way she was running her paws up and down his length.

She squeezed it, and he felt himself twitching again, sending more lube onto her fingers.

Her noise wasn't even words. But it got the message across just fine. Nick pushed both his paws up her front, under her shirt, and she pulled it the rest of the way off. Hot, tired, _horny_ bunny washed over him. He kicked his shorts to the side.

She turned herself around, and tipped forward on his chest long enough to kiss him before she scooted down. She took some of her own weight again, long enough to crouch over him where he'd be able to see her lining him up. His tip slipped down her center, just barely inside.

She was watching him, and her eyes got big as the sensation pushed him a little further and he twitched again, this time squirting into her, like a preview of what was to come. At that, Judy huffed and deepened her crouch, sliding all the way onto him in one smooth motion. The warmth made Nick's stomach clench. He could feel her shivering around him.

"You okay?"

Carefully, so they wouldn't part, Judy tipped back forward to rest her weight against his trunk again. That beatific smile was really all the answer he needed.

And there they stayed, quiet but for their breathing, to let the slow peak creep up on them. Nick wrapped his tail around her legs. He pressed careful claws into her rump and ran her fluffy scut tail through his fingers, and Judy dug her own fingers into the fur of his chest. Their hips barely moved. She would twitch where he was buried in her, and he would respond, almost unconsciously, and that was enough. It was a feedback loop.

And they were getting _really_ close. Nick could feel his knot coming up already, still in his sheath because of how little they were moving around. Maybe if they timed this right...

He reached down between them and started to rub her again. Her shudder nearly set him off. 

_"Nick-"_

He licked her nose. "Whatever you're doing, don't stop, sweetheart."

Judy came far back enough from infinity to give him that hot little challenging look. She spread her legs and pushed further down on him, and wormed her own paw under his back to needle he claws against the base of his tail, massaging sensitive muscles that were stiff and sore from the run.

And that was enough to give Nick energy he didn't know he had. His glutes tightened and pushed his hips up, right on the edge, taking all of her weight on his feet and shoulders-

And Judy squeezed him and his knot slipped all the way out of his sheath between them, pressing against them both, and that little bit of feeling was enough to make him lose it.

It was slow, and deep, and so strong Nick felt each spurt pulling at him. He pulled at Judy, too, to keep her close and feel her heartbeat. He could feel her legs shaking them both.

They came down even slower, if that were possible. Judy stretched up to nose at him. He looked her in the eye and smiled-

And his stomach growled.

Judy was immobilized - not by exhaustion, not by their coupling - but by helpless giggles.

"Seems your stomach is thinking a couple steps ahead of your dick."

Nick sighed. "It always did interrupt things."

"Then we should go eat," she said, and looked down at his knot. "Unless you want to go again?"

They could if they wanted to. And most times they did. But now Nick was feeling it, too - the satisfaction of a job well done, and the actual exhaustion now that they'd finished. "I think you're right. We might actually fall asleep here if we're not careful."

They shared, because Judy's water heater didn't have the capacity for two hot showers in a row. As it was, it was running cold by the time they shut it off, because Nick had dallied long enough to gather her weight against him and push her to a third climax with his paws.

She gave him the one towel on the rod and went to look for another. Nick dried himself off in front of the mirror and pulled on some pants, and tried to think of where they could go for food that would require the least energy. He wasn't going to be picky tonight, and he knew Judy wouldn't be, either. There was a corner store at the end of the block that did little salads. Maybe that would work.

Judy had found her towel when Nick stepped back out of the bathroom - and just as quickly hung it up to dry on the clothes rod. Now she was stretched out on her back on the couch, in just pants herself. Her eyes were closed.

Well, that would work too. Nick collected their discarded ice packs from the rug and went to rummage in the freezer.

When he slipped a paw against her shoulder, she cracked one eye.

"Are you ready?"

"I don't think either of us is in any shape to navigate stairs right now," he said.

Judy made to get up. "But you sounded so hungry."

Nick held up the frozen peas. "We'll worry about it later. Scoot over."

She sat curled against his chest. Nick zipped the bag open with a claw and shook some peas into her paws.

They ate about two dozen each. The rest sat thawing until they'd finished their nap.


	5. Give and Take

The beep of the microwave coincided perfectly with the click of Judy's spare key in her apartment door.

"Mail's here," Nick said. He leaned on the door so it shut behind him. Judy heard the chain rattle.

"Thanks." Judy pointed with the blade to the couch. "I'll put it away in a second."

"Smells good." Nick came up behind her to slip his paws onto her stomach and kiss her hello on the top of her head. "Did you find the green beans?"

"They're steaming now. Just getting the spices ready."

His muzzle appeared over her forehead as he sniffed down at her work. "Can I have some?"

"With dinner. Get changed first."

It was the all-in meal, their last one with lots of homegrown ingredients for a while until the next batch ripened in the garden. Judy had steamed up the rest of their veggies to top their spaghetti, and the basil chiffonade was still fresh. But the rest of the weekend's food would probably be coming out of waxed cardboard. At least Nick had started to be able to taste the difference, too. He didn't tease her about it anymore.

He'd hung his uniform on her clothes rack and traded it for the street clothes he kept in his overnight bag. They scooped green beans out of the stacked bowls in the microwave and sat to eat. Nick burned his tongue.  
.  
"These taste even better this time," he mumbled.

"The microwave steamer was a great idea," Judy agreed. "My parents think I'm nuts."

Nick shrugged. "To be fair to them, there is an improvised dishrack in your shower right now."

Apartment cooking was a challenge. She had just the one hotplate because she had just the one GFI outlet free in the bathroom, and the microwave took up the rest of the slack. She often daydreamed of her mother's gas ranges at home, or even of Nick's contact heaters at his apartment. But she could still make barely enough spaghetti for two. And they had their veggies.

"Bottle of wine next time," Nick said, and slurped a noodle. "Some bottom-shelf special, to really complement the Bohemia-on-a-budget image."

Judy poked her fork at him. "There's nothing cheap about homegrown veggies." There was nothing cheap about eating them on the floor of her apartment because there wasn't any room left for more chairs. There was nothing cheap about chopping parsley on a square foot of cutting board, on the only desk space not covered with notes and paperwork from the office.

And Judy happened to know he loved their little dinners. They planned them in advance and looked forward to them all week, even as they ate together at much nicer places. It wasn't about the quality of presentation, or even the atmosphere, technically. There weren't many places where they could finish up and go straight to cuddling. That carried a lot of weight.

Especially tonight, Judy realized as she caught sight of the little stack of mail Nick had left on the couch cushions by his overnight bag, with the plain cardboard box on top.

He watched her pick it up. "What is it? Garden stuff?"

"It's your special order." She flipped it to him. "I'll handle the dishes. You open that."

"Already?" Nick's ears flattened. He frowned and hefted the box. "With a name like Greenfield Distribution?"

"It's a shell. For shipping. Lepor Industries prides itself on its discretion."

"You sound like a salesbunny."

Judy gathered their bowls and went to the bathroom sink to scrub them out. She had to give him that one. She was more familiar with Lepor than most. Probably bought more sex toys than most, come to think of it.

Judy could still remember the powerful curiosity Nick had never been afraid to show when he knew they were alone, the first time he watched her detail the finer points of what made her own toy special. To think she'd splurged on the Mark VI, because it had been a housewarming gift to herself when she'd first moved in. She'd never thought she'd be using it with someone else, much less so soon or so frequently. Sometimes Judy wondered which of them was the less satiable.

They'd been drinking the weekend before, and got to gawking at the more outlandish shapes Lepor offered. The company was run by bunnies, sure, but it had built a reputation for engineering things pretty much any mammal could enjoy. Judy had laughed at Nick's face as she'd scrolled through the vast array of silicone on offer, and asked him if he'd seen anything he liked. His response had been to grab her instead, and he'd said something about preferring the _real thing_.

A couple drinks and a little less clothing later she'd asked again, just to mess with him, and, well. As they did with almost everything else, they'd chosen something they could share.

When Judy emerged Nick was staring in fascination at the length of flat gray silicone in the box. It looked more abstract than lewd, one long and thin oblong shape and one short and stubby one, bent where their bases joined. There were little ridges along the acute side.

Judy caught his eye. "What do you think?"

"I think we should have grabbed that wine," he said, and smiled. He was turning the feeldoe around in front of his nose. "I've never done this before."

"I know." Judy crossed and sat next to him against the front of the couch. "And it's going to be your call."

"No, no." He put an arm around her and pressed his muzzle against her ears. "I made up my mind as soon as I realized what was in the box. I've been looking forward to this."

Her toes curled. "If you're sure."

Nick had this way of turning on the heat in the space of seconds. Judy felt his teeth sliding along the edge of her ear. "I'm sure. And I want you calling the shots."

"What makes you think-" Judy had to try again, as Nick pushed his claws under her shirt in one smooth motion. "What makes you think I'm going to know how to drive that thing? I've never done this before, either."

"Well then I guess we'll both figure it out."

Judy finally turned and swung herself onto his lap. She plucked the toy out of his paws before he could drop it and hugged him close long enough to plant a kiss on his forehead. He pressed his snout against her throat.

"You stay here," she breathed, and let him go. "Keep your shorts on for now."

\---

When she got back from giving the toy a thorough washing and hunting down the lube, Nick had spread a towel on the ground to spare her rug the worst of it. He sat cross-legged, in blue boxer-briefs, and looked up at her. His tailtip flicked back and forth. She raised an eyebrow.

"You have to make it weird?"

"I'm about to take it under the tail from the letter L," he said. "It's already weird."

Judy put the toy and the little bottle on the edge of the towel. Her pants joined them, and she watched Nick get very attentive.

"Do you just never wear underwear?"

"Of course I wear underwear. Going to work like this would be so inappropriate." Judy folded her arms and scowled down at him. "Maybe I was just planning on jumping you tonight anyway, toy or no toy."

She pushed onto his lap so he sank back against the couch. His chest was broad and soft under her paws.

"Is this good?"

Nick nodded. "I want to see your face, too."

"Nice and slow," she murmured against his nose. "Okay? I want you to be comfortable the whole time. If you ever need a break, or if you change your mind, you call me off."

"Pretzels," Nick agreed. He was sure about this, then.

"Pretzels."

He lay back, with his head and shoulders propped against the couch. Judy lost her shirt and sat between his feet, so his tail wound into her lap. That would be as good a place to start as any. She lifted its weight and ran the thick fur through her fingers.

"You didn't bring a brush, by chance."

Nick shook his head. "Sorry."

She'd have to keep using her paws, then. She pulled more of it against her and reached up so she could stroke its whole length. It disappeared between his legs, of course, but that was part of the appeal right now. She had to slide her paw underneath his rump to scratch at where it joined his back. When Nick realized what she was doing, he lifted his hips to oblige her.

"Just relax," she said, even though the muscles in his legs were probably tense from her attentions and not from any real strain.

"I am relaxed." One of his legs twitched now. "You're just good at that."

Judy tucked his tail under her chin so she would have both paws free to pull on him with just the slightest pressure, along the line of his spine so it wouldn't be uncomfortable. Nick squirmed. He smelled so good - like violets, yes, with this deep, wooded edge to it that was uniquely him, that always set her heart pattering just a bit faster. And it was getting sharper. She looked up at him and hid her smile behind the bushy tip of his tail.

By now he was semiliquid, looking down his front at her with half-lidded eyes and with his tongue between his front teeth. His knees were open to either side of her and there was a nice distracting bulge in his shorts now. Judy almost reached for him.

"Good?"

His answer was a full-body wriggle. His knees came up a bit, highlighting those blue curves...

Actually, yes, it was time. She hooked her fingers over the waistband at his hips and pulled, slow.

She never got tired of that. Nick had filled his sheath and was just starting to show red against the creamy fur of his stomach. He watched her get closer with attentive ears and that silly tongue of his, until she slipped her fingers around him and gave him a little squeeze. His hips rocked.

"You ready?"

He smiled. "Ready."

The lube was cool on her fingers. She gave both ends of their new toy a hefty dose, because neither of them had any experience with this one. Nick looked on, fascinated, as she stood with her legs spread in front of him to work it inside.

She felt heavy. The feeldoe's length was like an awkward lever, pulling down on her. The front end swung from side. Even when she squeezed on it, a step toward Nick made it twist and nearly slip out.

"Wait, this is what you deal with all the time?"

Laughter shook his chest. "Mine's attached a bit better. How does it feel?"

"Good." Judy reached down to hold it in place with one paw and sank to her knees. "Not as big as you."

"Aw, thank you." His eyes were wide.

"Hey." She saw it. She crawled halfway forward onto his chest so she could kiss him. The toy slipped up his front, alongside his growing erection. "I've got you."

"I know," he said against her muzzle. "I trust you."

Making love tonight would place even more emphasis on each of them understanding the other's signals than usual. It was an entirely new experience for him, and he was counting on her to keep it comfortable and under control. His feedback would be critical - as her heeding it would be.

Judy lingered long enough to push her chin over his snout again, then knelt at his feet to line herself up. She reached down with one paw to steady the toy.

Nick jumped at the first contact. " _Oh,_ that's cold."

"I know, I know. Sorry." She waited there, just resting against him, stroking his tail, getting a sense for the masses and inertia involved. "You say when, okay?"

"Okay." Nick leaned back again. His knees came a bit further up. "When."

Judy had a pretty good sense for the motions involved, given the time she spent close to Nick. But it was harder than it looked, when she was trying to get something so unfamiliar to behave. She could feel the toy sliding back in her a bit and squeezed it again.

Nick, meanwhile, had wide, _wide_ eyes from the pressure. She watched his abs clench.

_"Relax,"_ she urged him.

Nick, for his part, just huffed. "I can't help it. You know that feeling when you sit in a really hot tub?"

Judy reached up to run her paws through his stomach fur, and over his hips, and under his butt. It seemed to help a bit. The muscles in his legs lost some of their tension.

Until she grabbed his thighs and started to notch up the pressure again, and she felt something slip - not back against her this time, but forward against him.

" _Oh,_ that-"

"Yeah?" Judy grinned at him, and then felt the feeldoe twist out of line, slip out and thump to the ground. "Damn."

She reached down to reset it. Nick watched her end disappear. His cock twitched.

And this time, when she pushed ever so slowly into him, her eyes on the little motions of his ears, his head tilted back and he started to drip on his stomach. He was going to make a bit of a mess.

Slowly. _Slowly._ She wasn't even using her hips; she just leaned against him and let her slight weight set a comfortable pace.

"Your turn," she said as he groaned. "How does it feel?"

Nick very carefully shifted his legs. "Bigger than it probably is."

"Too much?"

"No, it's good. Keep going."

Judy took a paw off his leg and stretched to reach up for him. He caught it halfway and pressed his muzzle into it.

"You're going to come, aren't you?"

Nick smiled behind her paw. "I might not be able to help it, if you keep doing that." His voice pitched up as she kept pushing at him. " _Oooh._ So far everything they say about this is true."

She could keep him going from here, too. She hadn't even touched him yet, and that would just put another layer of sensation on top of things for him. As it was, she'd run out of toy. Her hips pressed against his.

And when she reversed course, their angle changed, just so - and Nick twitched from head to toe. There was a whine weighing on his voice.

_"Carrots-"_

Judy laughed at him, low. "Guess what I found."

"Oh, don't stop."

He really was relaxed now, she expected because the sensations had taken him by surprise. His head fetched up against the couch so he was looking down himself at her. His muzzle was back out of range, so she rested her paws on his waist and focused on slow, smooth motions. His knot was coming up - wow, he was close - and his hips kept threatening to disrupt the balance she'd struck dealing with the toy that was buried in both of them.

"Quit squirming."

"I can't help it." He raised his knees. _"Ah-"_

Back in, and back out so he shivered and his claws ticked in the woven rug, and in again, as slow and careful as she could manage with the tension building in her own stomach. Nick flipped his tail from curling around her left side to curling around her right - and they both caught their breath. Nick felt it more than usual, obviously - he was feeling everything more than usual right now - but the motion translated through the toy, too, and those ridges rocked against her clit again.

"I have an idea," she managed.

Nick just smiled through his happy haze and wagged his tail again.

Judy hauled on his calves and lifted his legs so they would fall over her shoulders. He was plenty bendy in his current state, but a bit heavier than was quite comfortable. At least neither of them were going to be able to keep this up for long. Now she could lean all the way against him, with her paws on his thighs again - and a front-row seat. He was leaking like a bad faucet.

It wouldn't be long - and she suspected Nick was beyond the point of no return anyway. His breathing was shallow. His tail kept up its swishing between her legs, ticking both of them closer and closer.

Somehow, even with all of that, she still came first. It happened not when Nick wrapped his tail around her, or when his knot swelled even more, but as he reached his muzzle for hers, contorting himself even further.

Judy pushed all the way forward to meet him. He huffed and licked her nose, and her short, sharp climax made her give him all her weight. His eyes opened wide.

She forced herself to focus. Nick was almost whining against her; his legs tense as they held each other up, his tail thrashing even as it stayed curled around her waist. Her satisfaction was incidental right now. He was the one who had surrendered everything to her here. She skated one paw up to rub his tense abs, and the other she slipped down to set careful claws on either side of the base of his tail, where she knew he was sensitive-

Nick stiffened and groaned some happy note and his cock started to throb, onto his stomach and the back of her paw. His hips shuddered - she'd never seen him this _productive_ unless she was playing with his knot - and it dragged out the sensations on her end, too.

She held him up as long as she could, while he caught his breath and started to come down. He was sensitive in ways he usually wasn't, if his ears were anything to go by. Their toy slipped out of him and he twitched.

_"Carrots."_

Judy dropped to her knees to slide it out. "You look satisfied."

"You never even _touched_ me."

"I can change that if you want." She reached out to lace two fingers under his knot. He writhed, and she drew back. Definitely sensitive.

So instead, she crawled up beside him so they were muzzle-to-muzzle. His nose sought hers out.

"You okay?" She asked. "It wasn't too much, was it?"

"No, it was good. My ears are ringing." He kissed her. "You got one, right?"

Judy laughed. "I got one."

"Do you want another one?"

She eyed his knot, and what he'd managed to do with just one orgasm. "You look like you need a good night's sleep. Maybe in the morning."

"Wait, and you're worried about _me_?" Nick sat up on his elbows. "You feeling all right, sweetheart?"

She rolled her eyes. "I mean, I can wake you up, if you want. In a couple hours. I just want to make sure you're recovered first."

"Okay." Nick nuzzled against her. "I could go for a nap after we get cleaned up. There's just one problem."

"What's that?"

He smiled. "Your shower is full of dishes."

\---

She left him long enough to move them. And when she started the water and stood in the doorway, she couldn't decide whether to laugh or run to help. It was true, what they said about walking funny.

He saw, and his ears flattened. "That bad, huh?"

"It's a good thing we don't work tomorrow," Judy said, and went with laughter. "Everyone would know."

They squeezed into the shower together and shared her big bottle of shampoo, and Judy decided her bed was the best place for them to sleep tonight. It would be more comfortable for him.

She lay in the arc of his body, there in the dark, and drew his tail carefully up between them so she could stroke it.

"Are you sore?"

"Yes," Nick said. "No getting around that. But you're helping. Thank you."

"I love you." She could feel her work relaxing him again. "If it gets distracting tell me to knock it off. You deserve your sleep, with the show you put on tonight."

"Or at least some of it." He nuzzled against her ears. "If you're really going to wake me up."

"We'll see," Judy said. She was feeling the pull of sleep herself, if she was honest. "I'll give you four hours, at least."

Nick hugged her tight. "Deal."


	6. For the Sole Purpose of Recreation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A thing for /trash/. This doesn't fit into my canon anywhere, it's just a story.

Hate sex was the best sex.

Nick had his pick of things to love about dating a rabbit - the work, the play, the sleeping in on weekends, the dates, the housework -

But the sex was killer. And it was ever better when they were both pissed off, when someone else deigned to lean in and judge them for what they'd found.

It didn't happen often these days. Nobody cared about interspecies relationships anymore. That hadn't been a thing since before Nick had been born, if he believed his mother's stories. Zootopia was, in fact, more progressive than he'd once given his lover flak for believing. They saw more and more of that every day.

Judy twisted under him, her paws against his chest, her claws digging into his coat. She was breathing in time with his urgent rhythm. Her eyes were sharp with love and lust, her ears limp against the pillow behind her head.

Nick felt sorry for the others, sometimes. For the ones who would never get to understand how good this was.

There were still some who made righteous noise over two mammals crossing whatever sacred line they still held. That old cat, in black lace, with the gaudy necklace, had to have been eighty years old.

She'd seen them holding paws, crossing the street as she'd come down the steps from the corner church. Cried something about _degeneracy_ and _damnation_. Threatened to call the police.

Old Nick would have kept his eyes front and gotten out of there.

New Nick, emboldened by the incredulous Judy on his hip, had laughed aloud with her and obliged the old lady. He'd passed over his work number and they'd gone straight back here, where they left Judy's window wide open for whoever was so lucky or unlucky to catch a glimpse or listen in.

They didn't need the reminders, the reassurance. They were past that. This was for fun. Because they could. To stick it to that old cat.

It was a muggy summer evening, heavy with the scent of imminent rain and clean-for-now bedsheets. Judy's mattress creaked under them. Her hot breath crested against his forehead when he buried his muzzle against her throat, taking her in.

"You think we overdid it?" Judy panted.

"Not yet, we didn't," he said. The fur of her collarbone ruffled under his tongue.

That made her laugh again, in that perfect breathless way that always tugged at him.

She shifted again, to change her angle. Nick could almost see stars. Her sharp little teeth were at his throat.

His groan was just noise. He broke that contact just long enough to catch her eyes, to ask.

"Ready?"

And she locked her ankles over his tail, just as strong as he was. "Come on."

So he did. He pushed, one last time, to lock against her himself, and gave her everything he could.

And this was all the proof he ever needed, seeing her so happy and fulfilled. This was the only thing that mattered.

And thanks to what they'd built together, nobody could ever tell them otherwise again.


	7. Slow Morning

Judy knew she shouldn't wake Nick up yet. They had an hour before the farmer's market opened for the weekend, and it was just a few minutes' walk from his apartment. But she wouldn't be getting back to sleep, not now that she remembered.

So she lay in bed and watched the morning sun lance into the room, bit by bit. She watched the alarm clock tick through its seconds.

And she watched Nick breathe.

They didn't wear much to bed this time of year, and come most mornings they'd kicked off the sheets. Judy could take in Nick's sleek summer coat, how it graded from brown gloves to russet orange and cream - and to mint green stripes where his shorts started.

And Judy loved when she got the opportunity to sit back on her elbows and watch every part of him slowly wake up. It was a fox thing. A predator thing. And the tingle that started up in her belly when Nick filled out his curves in the morning never got old. He showed off for her, just by existing.

When Judy finally looked up he had cracked one eye, just enough that she could see the twinkle of his smile.

"Mm."

She reached over to brush the one ear that was sticking up. "Good morning, sexy."

"I have to get out of bed, don't I?"

"The market starts in an hour," Judy said. "We can take it slow."

Nick shifted his head, just enough to get his nose across the big pillow to where Judy had rested all night. She heard him breathing in against the fabric.

He knew. She could see it in his lazy, indulgent smile. And she was just fine with that. His _predicament_ was growing. He was going to need help soon.

She pushed on him, gently, so he would lay square on his back and spread his legs. It drew his snout off the pillow, so she moved up far enough to give him her throat as replacement.

By the time she'd worked her slow way down Nick's front, taking time to scratch her claws against his fuzzy chest and rub his belly, he was straining his waistband. She left him briefly for a tissue and found herself stopping to watch again when he stretched. It went from his muzzle to his toes - and made his hips roll and his tail flick from side to side.

She sat astride it when she came back, so she would be able to feel him wriggling. She bent to him and heard the rumble in his chest start, as she pressed her nose against the bulge in his shorts.

"What about you?"

Nick was looking down at her. His paws were cocked over his head and the warmth in his eyes made her give serious thought to being several hours late.

"Me? I want to stop for coffee on the way out this morning." Judy hooked her fingers around the elastic of Nick's shorts and pulled, slow, until they finally slipped over his hips. There was a shining droplet at his tip.

He hummed his amusement. Gentle claws found her eartips. "And bagels."

"Of course. But don't worry." His tail tried to swirl under her when she reached down to pull on his sheath. "You're paying me back tonight for sure."

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](https://falke-scribblings.tumblr.com/)


End file.
